Monday, 9 August 2010

Here is a stamp which I have now owned for around 2 years. After some research I have found out a bit more about it. It is a French stamp, typical to to the style of the "Post-War Roaring 20s", issued to commemorate the 1925 "Exposition Internationale Des Arts Decoratifs Modernes" World's Fair. Apparently the term "Art Deco" actually comes from shortening the words "Arts Decoratifs" therefore this stamp helped to spread the "Art Deco" movement throughout the World.

Saturday, 7 August 2010

Queen Maria II was succeeded by her eldest son Pedro, in English Peter V (Pedro V, King of Portugal 1853-1861). He followed his mother's tradition when it came to stamps. Below we can see one of the stamps issued for him. This particular one belongs to a set of stamps, issued between 1856-1858, which have gone down in history as "Pedro V- Curly Hair" because they were issued to replace the previous ones because the old ones showed a wrong style of the king's hairstyle.

The postmark used shows that this stamp was in fact used in Lisbon in and around 1858 an interesting year because it's the same year that the king's wife, Queen Stephanie died, victim of diphtheria.

Pedro V King of Portugal (1853-1861)

This king was one of the most beloved kings of Portugal and when he died of Cholera in 1861 there were actually revolts because his death was deemed as unnatural.

Because King Peter V died without any sons, it was his brother Louis (Luis I, King of Portugal 1861-1889) who succeeded to the throne. His first stamps, issued in 1862, were made in the same style of his mother and brother's, the only difference was that his head was turned to the left unlike his brother's. Here is my specimen.

Then in 1866, the design was changed. The King's head remained the same and in the same position, the background was however radically changed. Then a year later perforation was introduced.

This design was used until 1880 when for the first time in Portugal the monarch's head which had been white and featureless was replaced by a more realistic profile view of the king's head . Unfortunately I do not own any of those stamps. But because those stamps were considered to be quite crude they were promptly replaced a year later, this time the king was looking directly outwards.

New colours and values were added in 1884. (These would be re-issued both in 1900 and 1905)

1900 re-issue

In 1876 a new stamp was issued specially for the use of sending newspapers via post. (Even though it is known for these to have been used in regular postage.) They were re-issued in 1885 and 1905

1885 re-issue

The King would die in 1889 aged 50.

Luis I King of Portugal 1861-1889

My next stamp is from the beginning of the reign (1895) of King D. Carlos I of son of Luis and is a stamp which commemorated the 700 aniversary of the birth of St. Anthony.

On the reverse of this stamp is featured an inscription written in Latin.

The following stamps belong to the second issue of stamps relating to D. Carlos I issued in 1895. He continued the new fashion of portaying the monarch's "photo" started by his father. A year after he came to the throne he issued his first stamps, sadly I haven't got them. :(

New colours and values were issued in 1898

In the same year the third, and one of my favourites, Portuguese commemorative stamp was issued celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Maritine route to India by Vasco da Gama.

King Carlos was shot and killed in Lisbon in 1908 together with his older son.

King D. Carlos King of Portugal 1889-1908

The next and last King of Portugal was D. Carlos only surviving son D. Manuel II who succeded to the throne after his father's assassination in 1908. His stamps were, however, only issued two years later in 1910. In October of the same year a revolution broke out and the monarchy was abolished and a republic was proclaimed. The end of an era.

King Manuel II Last King of Portugal 1908-1910

In 1919 in the north of Portugal a counter-revolution (which lasted nearly a month) was proclaimed. New stamps were issued by the royalist government. But in the same day as the new stamps were supposed to circulate, republican troops invaded the city of Porto and ended the "Northern Monarchy". Some of the stamps had been distributed and all non-perfurated stamps are today considered to be Die Proofs. This is a special stamp for me because Porto is my birth town.

1919- PortugueseNorthernMonarchy Die Proof

I'm sorry for the quality of some of the stamps but my scanner has gone berserk for some reason. Also if you think there is any mistakes or wrong information written here please comment.

Friday, 6 August 2010

For my first post I used a 1853 (possibly an 1863 re-impression*) Portuguese stamp. In these first Portuguese stamps, Queen Maria II (Queen of Portugal 1834-1853) is represented, like many of the early stamps of this period was printed in unperforated sheets. Portugal by printing this stamp became the 45th country to actually use stamps. There were 4.888.729 stamps printed of this particular specimen.

Queen Maria II of Portugal

It's also interesting that Queen Maria II died (giving birth to her 11th son) in the same year that these stamps were introduced so they weren't in circulation for very long.

I bought this one in Ebay for around 7.00£ though according to my catalogue it should be worth around 46.50£ (that's its value because it's damaged, if it was in better conditions the value would be much more substantial.)